Did you ever eat or drink something while grocery shopping?

micar

I go into my local tesco at lunchtime every day. Pick up a basket, throw a few things into it, pick up a ready made sandwich and a small bottle of tropicana, walk around eating and drinking. After I'm finished, I put the stuff in the basket back, hide the used wrapping of the sandwich and bottle at the back of some shelf, put the basket back and then walk out the door fed.

Never been caught.

leavingirl

there is free tea and coffee in many supermarkets in Europe. That coffee can make you get through the last 15 minutes of a long grocery shop

bpmurray

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Mind you, drinking alcohol in a public place is usually illegal regardless of whether you've paid for it.

Actually, It isn't. There are a few inner city areas where it's been banned by bye-laws, but it's not a blanket country-wide ban. (Dublin 0 - Culchies 1).

On the other hand, it is illegal to be so drunk that you might be a danger to yourself or others.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/criminal_law/criminal_offences/alcohol_and_the_law.html

bpmurray

I shop in a hurry - I know what I want, get it and go. No time to be tasting it on the way around, although I'll usually swoop on any free tastes.

Wabbit Ears

No

yea, do it with the kids sometimes with bread or a bun. Always pay for it at the till. Cashiers are well used to it.

Lia_lia

No

I have memories of munching on baguettes in the supermarket when I was a kid alright! Wouldn't do it now though. Don't really do "big shops"..

ted1

bpmurray wrote: »

Actually, It isn't. There are a few inner city areas where it's been banned by bye-laws, but it's not a blanket country-wide ban. (Dublin 0 - Culchies 1).

On the other hand, it is illegal to be so drunk that you might be a danger to yourself or others.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/criminal_law/criminal_offences/alcohol_and_the_law.html

But buying drink in and consuming it on a premises licensed for off sales is againest their license

Chancer3001

In my student days, used to take a huge thing of seedless grapes, put it on the trolley where the baby would sit.

Eat the entire thing on My walk around the shop and then discard the empty packet in the meat or off license section.

Every time.

Once a week for 4 years

Some lad must have been sick of finding grape packets thrown in random places.

They actually changed the packets the grapes came in after my first two years. To the resealable ones with the thick plastic strip on top.

Made zero difference

Diamond Doll

Chancer3001 wrote: »

In my student days, used to take a huge thing of seedless grapes, put it on the trolley where the baby would sit.

Eat the entire thing on My walk around the shop and then discard the empty packet in the meat or off license section.

Every time.

Once a week for 4 years

Some lad must have been sick of finding grape packets thrown in random places.

They actually changed the packets the grapes came in after my first two years. To the resealable ones with the thick plastic strip on top.

Made zero difference

That's just stealing though. Why not just shove them in your backpack or whatever ... it's the exact same thing, and it's a really crappy and wrong thing to do.

the_pen_turner

No

i occasionally open and drink some out of a bottle of water or soft drink while im waiting for my role to be made or waiting to pay. I think about it in a way that I am making a commitment to buy the item. I will pay for it before I leave.


once I was in a local centra or mace . I was working on a site down the road and my lunch was ruined by a water leak. I was starving. by lunch time.
there was a problem with some of the checkouts so only 1 was working. so there was a huge queue. by the time I got to pay I had it al eaten. nobody said anything. and if they did I would never darken their door again

ButtersSuki

cashback wrote: »

Well Gladwell mentioned things like the graffiti on the New York Subway. I'm not sure a child eating a biscuit in a supermarket is on the same level.

Of course it's not the same thing, but you gave to start somewhere. But hey I seem to be in the minority here for thinking eating or drinking something you haven't actually paid for is theft so I guess I'll be alone in thinking that allowing this behaviour is unacceptable.

Sigh.

And youre clearly attempting to trivialise it by describing it as a child eating or drinking. It's wrong! Can't you actually see that? They've taken something without paying for it and are eating/drinking it. How can that be right? Be that with or without the consent of the parents, it's wrong and sends a message to them at a young age that these things are ok. In a minority of these "offenders" that type of thinking will lay the foundation for a sense of entitlement later in life.

ButtersSuki

Haley Scruffy Uranus wrote: »

The bang of judgement from all the self righteous holier than thou high horse riding "never sinned in my life" types. Despicable attitudes altogether.

Sorry? Where did I say I haven't ever sinned?

Dricmeister

No

Has anyone who classes this as theft ever bought clothes or shoes and worn them out of the shop?

You try on a pair of shoes.
You decide to buy them.
You keep them on and go and pay for them.

Is that theft?

The simplest way to solve this conundrum would be to ask the retailer. I wonder whether the manager of the supermarket where we spend around €10,000 a year has an issue with my kids or me eating something while we're shopping and then paying for it...

Sam Kade

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Tell that to a screaming 2 year old and all the judgey ****ing childless shoppers tutting at him.

When they start screaming give them what they want then whenever they want anything all they need do is scream :rolleyes:

Sam Kade

suicide_circus wrote: »

I have seen mothers in my local Lidl feeding the kids cookies and lucozade while shopping and then wondering why their their kids are ADHD to f*ck with no self control. Not to mention that they don't pay for said items at the check out and then wonder why their kids end up thieving little bastards.

Well I'll be, biscuits are cookies now.

Zimmey

I used to work in Tesco in college and people did this all the time. I'd never comment on it and would just scan the barcode as usual, but I still found it very odd. Do people not mind looking like shoplifters? (even if they plan on paying, it can arouse suspicion as people aren't mindreaders.) And sometimes people would tear the barcode so that you couldn't scan the chocolate bar wrapper or whatever and you'd have to go get another one to scan. Fun times.

GardeningGirl

I have to admit I find it pretty gross, of course under exceptional circumstances it's one thing, but over all it seems to me to show a lack of self control.
My mother is quite a big woman and she'd be scoffing chocolate or sweets whilst shopping then put up the empty packet on the conveyor belt and I always find it so cringey, the look the till person would be giving her, "Oh, were you hungry?" Etc...
I know it is judgemental but I just think it's pretty shameful and wouldn't do it mysel or with children.

Eugene Norman

Dricmeister wrote: »

Has anyone who classes this as theft ever bought clothes or shoes and worn them out of the shop?

You try on a pair of shoes.
You decide to buy them.
You keep them on and go and pay for them.

Is that theft?

The simplest way to solve this conundrum would be to ask the retailer. I wonder whether the manager of the supermarket where we spend around €10,000 a year has an issue with my kids or me eating something while we're shopping and then paying for it...

Trying on a pair of shoes isn't theft because it isn't fully consumed.

Not only do I not do this, I don't think I know anybody who does and I haven't seen it. To my knowledge.

Looks like 50% of people do it... Nuts.

The problem is that you can't prove that somebody who is eating something is going to pay at the end.